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Missa Dictes moy toutes voz pensées

Introduction

The Missa Dictes moy toutes voz pensées attracted my attention not because I had ever heard it, or even of it, but because in the Complete Edition it stood out from the other fourteen Masses included there in having an Agnus II which was scored for three basses alone. Being an admirer of gimells (or twinned parts) in the English repertoire I was quick to appreciate a man who wanted to divide a low bass part into three. This scoring was startlingly original, hinting at a mind which preferred sonority above other aspects of composition, and therefore in my book to be trusted. The rest of the Mass repaid my faith, yielding exactly the kind of hidden masterpiece which I was looking for. It is an attractive detail that Mouton chose to base this Mass on a chanson by Loyset Compère, whom he probably replaced as a canon of St Quentin in 1518, where they were both eventually buried.

The three voice parts of Compère’s chanson are treated by Mouton as being three indepen­dent lines of melody, to be realigned and worked against each other at will. An example of this comes immediately, in the opening bars of the first Kyrie, where the melody which one hears first in the chanson – in the alto – now is heard third in the baritone part; and the melody which came in third in the chanson – the tenor – enters before the others in the top voice. Almost all the remaining movements begin with some variation of this technique, culminating in the Agnus III where a second tenor joins the ATBarB of the hitherto basic choir giving a whole new range of polyphonic possibilities (and creating some unfor­get­table dissonances). Interestingly the Crucifixus – a trio created by twinning the alto part and adding a baritone as accompaniment, another gimell in everything but name – seems to be free of Compère’s ideas, though with a polyphonist as resourceful as Mouton one can never be sure of what he has remade.

Recordings

"With a musical language quite distinct from everyone else, Jean Mouton is nonetheless often compared with Josquin on account of his astonishing technique. His music is able to convey such a spirit of calm and poise that in the whole gamut of rena ...» More

Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to men of goodwill.
We praise you. We bless you.
We worship you. We glorify you.
We give thanks to you
for your great glory.
Lord God, heavenly King,
almighty God the Father,
O Lord, the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.

You take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.
You take away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
You sit at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.
For you only are holy. You only are the Lord.
You only are the most high, Jesus Christ.
With the Holy Spirit
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

I believe in one God,
the Father, the almighty
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is seen and unseen.
I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God.
Eternally begotten of the Father.
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God.
Begotten not made,
of one being with the Father:
through him all things were made.
For us men
and for our salvation,
he came down from heaven.
By the power of the Holy Spirit he became
incarnate of the virgin Mary:
and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified:
under Pontius Pilate
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures.
He ascended into heaven:
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

And he shall come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead:
and his kingdom shall have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord and giver of life:
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son
he is worshipped and glorified;
he has spoken through the Prophets.
I believe in one holy, catholic
and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one
baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
And I look for the resurrection of the dead.
And the life of the world to come. Amen.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins
of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins
of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins
of the world, grant us peace.